BOSTON — Each time Jay Pandolfo has been asked about the mettle of his Boston University men’s hockey team, the head coach has offered a simple response.
“They really care.”
Cliché? Sure. But even in this up-and-down season, the Terriers have shown an ability to bounce back when down. It’s been evident on several occasions, including comebacks at North Dakota, Maine and over Notre Dame at the Friendship Four in Belfast.
Add the Beanpot final to the list.
BU (16-10-1, 10-6-1 Hockey East) was badly outplayed by No. 1 Boston College (21-5-1, 13-3-1 HE) in the first period. Then, the Terriers scored four unanswered goals to capture the 32nd Beanpot in school history with a 4-1 win at TD Garden Monday night.
“Our guys, they just find a way to respond,” Pandolfo said postgame. “They have all year, and they did in that game tonight.”
After 15 minutes of play, BC led 1-0 with 15 shots on goal to BU’s two. Had that pace continued through the rest of the game, the Eagles would have outshot the Terriers by a 60-8 margin.
By the end of the first period, BU cut that margin to 16-9. The momentum built from there. When the Terriers emerged for the second period, they had transformed into a completely new team.
“I think we just needed to relax,” Pandolfo said. “That was the message. ‘Let’s just go out and have fun here.’ We were frozen in the first period.”
The message worked. BU kicked off the frame by killing a Cole Hutson holding minor with relative ease, before stringing together several shifts of offensive zone time.
That pressure culminated in Brandon Svoboda’s tally at 5:43 of the second, which tied the game 1-1. The goal came off the rush, with Svoboda and freshman forward Nick Roukounakis on a 2-on-1 after a BC turnover.
Svoboda drifted wide as if to pass to Roukounakis, then ripped the puck over the shoulder of unsuspecting BC goalie Jacob Fowler.
“I know he’d like to produce a little more offensively, so great to see him rewarded with that goal,” Pandolfo said. “Very similar to what he did for Team USA at the World Junior Championships. Very similar role.”
The fourth line of Svoboda, Roukounakis and senior Tristan Amonte was terrific from the second period on, but so was the rest of the Terriers’ roster, which collectively delivered the best 40 minutes of BU hockey in recent memory.
“The first goal gave us energy,” said freshman defenseman Cole Hutson, who was named tournament MVP. “I think we kind of took over the game after we got that little energy boost and took advantage of it for sure.”
Hutson scored the eventual winner just 1:10 after Svoboda’s goal. After a keep-in at the blue line by sophomore defenseman Tom Willander, the puck found its way over to Hutson, who beat Fowler with a wrister.
Besides the goal, Hutson played one of his best games as a Terrier Monday night. On the biggest stage of the season so far, he looked poised and confident. Hutson had several of his patented zone entries, eluding defenders with misdirection and dekes. But maybe more impressive was his defensive play, which has often been deemed a weak spot of his by scouts and evaluators.
Hutson made several critical backchecks and blocked three shots, fully buying into the defensive effort necessary to slow down BC’s electric offense. He also made no notable turnovers after struggling with puck management in his first semester of college hockey.
After a 4-2 win at UMass on Dec. 11, Hutson took accountability for the team’s shaky first semester.
“I take full responsibility for the first half of the season,” he said then, pointing to his turnovers and unnecessary penalties. “I haven’t been good enough for this team.”
Since then, he powered Team USA to a gold medal at World Juniors in Ottawa and has played with a much higher level of maturity and dependability than he did in the first half.
Cole Eiserman, a teammate of Svoboda and Hutson on that Team USA World Juniors squad, gave BU a 3-1 edge at 13:52 of the third period. The freshman forward picked off a pass from BC defenseman Lukas Gustafsson, then deked to his backhand and slipped the puck through Fowler’s five-hole.
By the time Gavin McCarthy scored an empty-netter down the length of the ice to make it 4-1 at 18:18 of the third, BC’s raucous student section was filing to the exits.
Through it all, BU netminder Mikhail Yegorov played yet another terrific game. The freshman from Russia — playing in just his fifth start as a Terrier — made 43 saves, including some big ones in BC’s dominant first period.
“My confidence comes from my team, and they helped me a lot, especially in the second when they scored and we started going,” said Yegorov, who earned the Eberly Award as the goalie with the highest save percentage in the tournament.
The one goal Yegorov allowed — a tally from sophomore forward Gabe Perreault off a dish from sophomore forward Ryan Leonard to give BC a 1-0 lead in the first — would have been impossible to stop for any goalie. Besides that, Yegorov was unflappable.
“You can just see the joy he has coming to the rink,” said Pandolfo. “He loves the game. He does not get caught up in the moment. He enjoys the moment. He thrives in the moment. And that’s what he’s done for us here.”
The win bumps BU from ninth place in the PairWise rankings all the way up to No. 6, a significant bump with the regular season drawing to a close in early March. Pandolfo said he hopes the team can use the win as a springboard for what’s to come.
For now, though, Pandolfo is more than content with letting his team enjoy the moment.
“As a player, I experienced winning it. I know what it means. I know what it feels like,” Pandolfo said. “That’s what you want to see your players feel. That’s all I care about.”